China Scales Back Shale Projects

China National Offshore Oil Corp (Cnooc) has decided to shelve its shale gas project in Anhui province in the latest sign that the shale gas revolution that transformed the US energy industry is unlikely to replicate itself in China. Chinese and international oil companies are cutting spending following a steep slide in crude prices over the past year, and expensive shale projects are begin targeted. Cnooc joins larger Chinese firm PetroChina, which has already sharply scaled back on shale project in Sichuan province that it was developing with Royal Dutch Shell. –Lucy Hornby, Financial Times, 27 March 2015

Global oil companies are unwinding some big bets they made on China—and that is bad news for the Chinese companies, which need their know-how. Falling oil prices have forced oil bosses to slash planned investments that now look less likely to provide good returns. Projects in China, often expensive and geologically risky, are high on the list of those to be cut. Royal Dutch Shell PLC is scaling back investment in China shale exploration after several years of costly challenges. –Brian Spegele, The Wall Street Journal, 27 March 2015

The tides of the world’s seaborne coal trade are shifting rapidly as top consumer China seeks to rely more on domestic output while cutting its use of the polluting energy source. India, the world’s second-largest coal consumer, is stepping into the breach, pulling in more coal cargoes amid a price slump. India’s coal imports could rise by more than 8% this year to 170 million metric tons, research firm Wood Mackenzie estimates, putting them almost on a par with those of China, which imported 207 million tons last year. –Biman Mukherji, The Wall Street Journal, 27 March 2015

Republicans with higher levels of education are more likely than those in their parties with less education to say that the seriousness of global warming is “generally exaggerated.” Seventy-four percent of Republicans with a college degree say it is exaggerated, compared with 57% of those with high school education or less saying the same. Democrats are much less likely in general to say that the seriousness of global warming is exaggerated. College graduates who are Republicans are actually more likely than college graduates who are Democrats to say they understand a great deal about the issue, but well-educated Republicans find this understanding leads them in a different direction than it does Democrats. —Gallup, 26 March 2015

Since 1989, there’s been no significant change in the public’s concern level over global warming. To put this in perspective, note that the most expensive public-relations campaign in history — one that includes most governmental agencies, a long list of welfare-sucking corporations, the public school system, the universities, an infinite parade of celebrities, think tanks, well-funded environmental groups and an entire major political party — has, over the past 25 years or so, increased the number of Democrats who “worry greatly” about global warming by a mere four percentage points. And considering the absurd amount of media this crusade continues to garner, its ineffectiveness is doubly amazing. –David Harsanyi, The Federalist, 26 March 2015